August 26, 2010

The Beginning is the End!

Hitchcock is the classic text-book - to make you understand the grammar of cinema. Kurosawa adds a legendary and epic quality to it and takes it to a higher emotional and spiritual plane.

And then comes Stanley Kubrick - to make you realize the intuitive potential of cinema and explore its abstractions - to motivate you to keep stretching its limits. No doubt, he has influenced all modern maverick masters.

Remember 'Pulp Fiction'? Of course, you do - where the first scene is the last scene. Many films have used this device in the last two decades and it still continues to work. It is actually an established literary device called In medias res ( Latin = into the middle of affairs), a story beginning either at the mid-point or at the conclusion, rather than at the beginning.

We, my brother and I, seem to be so much in love with this tool that all three of our completed screenplays begin with the climax of the respective films!

Watched Stanley Kubrick's 'Lolita' today. He used this tool for wonderful effect, way back in 1962! His earlier film 'The Killing' is most probably the first major film to use parallel narration with several tracks going back and forth in time.

Vikramaditya Motwane says, you can learn all you need to learn about film making from Hitchcock, Kurosawa, and Kubrick. Just last night my brother and I were discussing this. Hitchcock is the classic text-book - to make you understand the grammar of cinema. Kurosawa adds a legendary and epic quality to it and takes it to a higher emotional and spiritual plane. And then comes Stanley Kubrick - to make you realize the intuitive potential of cinema and explore its abstractions - to motivate you to keep stretching its limits.

I am really sorry if my first comment was not able to make my negative connotation clear to you or to other readers.

Now question arises that why did I say so, so it would take a whole post to elaborate this and I have no reason to do so. As I hope nobody is going to remember this film after 2010 except person personally related to this film so there is no need to write an analysis of this film even for student of cinema. If anybody would ask me to say in one line about this film then I would like to say that it is a plastic film except the character of Arjun. In my personal view only those persons can appreciate this film who has never been to north India or who has nothing to do with creativity!

I think I must tell you that before making my previous comment I had read the wiki entry on this film and I have read all posts about this film on your blog also with some other reviews available on web.

@Rangnath SinghWith all due respect Sir, you can only have a supreme authority over an answer to the question whether 'you' liked the film or not. Whether Udaan, or any film, or any piece of art for that matter, will be remembered long after, is a question always best left to the authority of time, as history has always shown and indifferently humbled any self-presumptuous individual's or even any great film/art critic's judgement, whenever overstepping their knowledge jurisdiction.

And no, I am not biased for/against the movie Udaan in putting forward this point humbly before you.

apart from your comment there is just one humble request to you that please give me one sample from my comments where I have shown hardheaded assertion.

You should read again the line which has affected you the most. I have started that sentence with ‘as I hope’. Please consider me as a naïve and told me that is there any other more humble way to present my quite uncommon view about this film.

If you think having any uncommon view against popular opinion is indecent thing then sorry to say here I disagree with you.

Ha ha, I never consider that having an uncommon view against the popular opinion is an indecent thing to do, and it will surely be among those worst accusations I wish I was never accused off. I myself am trying hard to inculcate that courage within me (to unabashedly express that unpopular opinion)! Infact the very lack of this freedom in our country disheartens me deeply. Yes, its there 'in writing' in our so called 'constitution', but whenever any person or a group, esp. famous and popular, tries to do that ('uncommon view against popular opinion'), usually always, 'sentiments' of many other individuals and groups get 'hurt' and they get 'offended', resulting in extremism in from of mob violence, demonstrations, vandalism etc., finally ending with the individual being forced to take back and 'regret' his independent comments/remarks/thoughts. Comparing this freedom of expression, and tolerance standards of general masses in countries like India, Pakistan, China, and likes, to those like the USA, I really sometimes wish I could smell and breath that fresh and free air of those places...

Anyway, coming back to your post, yes, I did get carry away a little and miss those 'as I hope', 'in my personal view' phrases, even though I read your post 2-3 times to avoid any misunderstanding! Guess, I was affected in a very negative way, the manner in which you sentenced the shelf life of a movie you didn't like, to one year, and so I made my point. Now that I read your post again, to a little embarrassment, I see you merely put forward your 'personal' view, to which you are obviously entitled to here, at least. ;)

P.S. I started the 'Must Watch' recommendations in September 2010. Before that I had watched several movies that must feature in this list. But in order to save myself from the useless and predictable exercise of recommending all great movies, I decided to follow a simple eligibility criterion: The movies recommended here would be among those I watched or re-watched since September 2010. So please do not be surprised if 'Cinema Paradiso' or 'Apocalypse Now' (which are, in my opinion, definite Must Watch) do not feature in here. They will find a place in the list the day I re-watch them.